This is what I call the Popcorn Mentality. I’m going to break down 2 different strategies that you can use to help you be more consistent in your weight loss journey and stick to your weight loss plan.
Overweighted Episode 05 Transcript
Malaika Burley: Okay, so let’s talk about microwave popcorn. And first off, I want to say it’s a blessing from the Lord, if you are anywhere around my age, I’m 45 at this time, and back in the day, we used to have to pop popcorn on the stove, like you would get some oil, put it in a pot, put the kernels in and let it pop. And then we got real fancy. And I believe it was Jiffy Pop made this type of thing where it was kind of like the popcorn was already in a little silver pan and it had like the silver foil over the top. So you could just put that on the stove and you had to keep shaking it like back and forth, and then it would pop up. That was the closest thing we had to microwave popcorn back then. So microwave popcorn, the fact that you can just take it out of the plastic, put it in the microwave and press the little popcorn button and have yourself a nice, big bag of popcorn with the seasoning already on it, by the way, is awesome. Now, you know like if you don’t do it exactly right, it can then be burnt popcorn and will stink up your house for two days. And that’s the devil. I’m just gonna say that. But I love me some microwave popcorn.
Microwave Popcorn and Your Weight Loss Journey
So how does this relate though, to your weight loss journey. So think about this scenario for a minute. So you have your bag of microwave popcorn that you want to pop. And if you follow the instructions, a lot of times with the packages, they have instructions for like 1000 Watt microwaves. And depending on the bag of popcorn, it will tell you about a minute and a half or two minutes for the popcorn but you’re supposed to listen, you know for to slow down. So you put it in the microwave, you put maybe a minute and a half on the microwave timer, you press it and your bag of popcorn, it will start to heat up on the inside and then you start to hear it popping. And the popping gets faster and faster as the bag inflates. And then right towards the end, you hear it starting to slow down. And you know it’s time to stop it because you don’t want that burnt popcorn smell in your house for two days. So you stopped a microwave, and you wait for that one last pop because there’s always one kernel that pops after you stop the microwave. And you take it out and you get to enjoy your buttery bag of popcorn. In my case, I like the kettle corn. But whatever your favorite flavor is.
But what if you put the bag in the microwave, you press the minute and 30 seconds and you press start. And then you wait five seconds and open the microwave door to see if your popcorn is ready. Of course, it’s not going to be ready after five seconds, right? So you close the door, press start again, let it go for another five seconds. And then you see that it’s the bag starting to inflate a little bit. So you open the microwave door to see if your popcorns ready. Of course, your popcorn is not ready yet. And you continue to do this, stopping the microwave and opening it opening the door every five seconds to see if your popcorn is ready. And at the end of that minute and 30 seconds, you still have the exact same bag full of unpopped kernels that you started with. So it was the same amount of time, right, the minute and a half. But the difference was you kept opening the door every five seconds. So what you are doing is you’re stopping the process and you’re undoing the progress, you’re not allowing it to go through the entire process so that you can get that end result of that full bag of popcorn. And that is what happens in our weight loss journey. When we are going along. We’re following our plans and then life happens or we get unmotivated and we stop following the process. And so we end up undoing our progress.
So I want to give you a couple strategies that will help you to remain consistent and committed on your weight loss journey even when motivation’s low, even when things maybe go crazy in your life, but it’s going to help you to keep going so you Don’t keep stopping the process and undoing your progress.
Strategy 1
So the first strategy that I want to give you this is going to be for those people that I really like to plan things out ahead of time. For those of us that are more like me where you kind of fly by the seat of your pants, or you’re a procrastinator, I’m going to give you a quick strategy for that after this one. But this first strategy is going to be great for those of you that like to plan things out ahead of time. So going back to the popcorn analogy, like I mentioned on the package, it usually gives you instructions for 1000 watt microwave, well, my microwave is 900 Watts, it’s not 1000. So I usually have to adjust whatever time it says on there for the package to fit my microwave. So because it’s a lower wattage microwave, it means that I probably will have to pop the popcorn for a little bit longer than whatever it says. But the thing is, even at that lower wattage and having to pop it for a little bit longer, I
still get that same result as I would if I had 1000 watt microwave right, I still get the big full bag of popcorn. So we can apply that to our weight loss journeys. So if we look at our lives as having like a high wattage, seasons and lower wattage seasons, so maybe your high wattage season, that’s probably those times when your motivation is like super high, everything’s going smoothly in life, your stress is being managed, well. Everything is going great with your family, you’re just kind of flowing it and everything’s just going really good. I like to look at that as high wattage times. And some of your low wattage times, maybe those times where maybe your kids are sick, maybe you’re working longer hours, maybe you have a new baby and you’re taking care of that baby, or you could even be on something like vacation. And those are the times where maybe your motivation to stick to your weight loss plan isn’t going to be as high as during those high wattage times. But the great thing is, you can still get the result, just like with the popcorn analogy, you can still get the result that you want. Even by working in those lower wattage times. Honestly, there’s never going to be any perfect time to lose weight, right. So we have to learn to manage and stay somewhat consistent during all the seasons of our life and all the times and ways that things fluctuate in our life so that we don’t stop that process and undo that progress. So I want you to get really good at being inconsistently consistent. So even with being inconsistently consistent, you’re going to continue to keep moving forward towards your goal. So when your motivation is low or those crazy times hit, you’re still going to be able to move forward because you’re going to have a plan for those lower wattage times.
So just one example with my weight loss journey, I was not completely 100% consistent or at my high wattage time for the entire year last year. And even with me going in and out of high and low wattage seasons throughout the year, I was still able to lose over 50 pounds during that time, because I still did something to keep me moving forward towards my goal. So I was being inconsistently consistent. So I wasn’t consistently doing everything 100% Correct. But I was still doing something that was going to continue to move me forward.
How to Make Your High/Low Wattage Consistency Plan
So what I want you to do is take out a piece of paper or if you have a journal or whatever you like to write in and divide it into two columns. And you’re going to have on one side, your high wattage, so label one side, high wattage, and then the other side, you’re going to label low wattage. So what I want you to do is make a plan in seven different areas of what you’re going to do during high water times and what you’re going to do in lower wattage times. So the seven areas are going to be movement, nutrition, stress, sleep, social, and environmental, and spiritually. So for instance, what you’re going to write in the high wattage column is when your motivation is on 10 You want to do all the things, everything’s going well, you’re ramped up and ready to go, and you have no obstacles, nothing’s blocking you from doing all the things you want on your weight loss plan. You’re gonna write out what you’re gonna do in those seven areas.
And then on the low wattage side, I want you to think about when you just have no motivation, you are just really not wanting to do anything. What’s the minimum thing that you can do to still move you forward in each of those areas?
So let me give you an example for movement. movement and high wattage times, maybe I am working out every single day for at least 30 minutes a day during my high wattage times, I’m excited, I’m going to do some cardio, I’m going to do some strength and flexibility every single day of the week for at least 30 minutes. Okay, that’s high wattage. But during the low wattage times, when I pretty much don’t want to do anything, then maybe for my movement, all I’m going to do is just walk my dog around the block, or if it’s really bad, I might just walk them around the house, right, but I’m still doing something that still moving me forward.
So one more example, let’s say for nutrition. So during the high wattage times for nutrition, I’m excited, I’m ready to go. I’m going to meal prep for the entire week on Sunday. Okay, that’s my high wattage activity. But low wattage activity, when I pretty much don’t want to do anything, the only thing that I might be willing to do is go to a fast food restaurant, but I’m going to pick the most nutritious thing on the menu that I can possibly pick. So that’s going to be the difference between your high wattage activity and your low wattage activity. But just like the microwave, the popcorn was still get popped at a lower wattage, it just may take a little bit longer. So the same with your weight loss plan. Even if you’re not always in high wattage activity, even doing something low wattage, you’re still moving yourself forward. And you’re still going to get towards your goal, it just may take a little bit longer.
And here’s a couple of statistics like here’s a little science to back it up what I’m saying as far as being inconsistently consistent. So this is from my nutrition coaching program, they took some data from 12 months of coaching some clients, and they have males and females, I’ll just read through some of the statistics as far as the females, for females that were being 90 to 100%. consistent over the 12 months, they had an average of 21 inches lost total over their whole body and 19 pounds lost. But for females that were 10 to 49%. Consistent over that 12 months, they had an average of 11 total inches lost across their body, and 11 pounds loss. So you see, even though there was a difference in the amount they still had lost by being inconsistently consistent.
So it’s okay, if you have those seasons, where you need to work at a lower wattage, just continue to do something and keep moving yourself forward towards your goal, you’re still going to end up with results, even though it may take a little bit longer.
So that’s one strategy that you can do for those of you that kind of like to pre plan. So you’ll have this plan already mapped out, you’ll know exactly what you want to do during those high in your lower wattage times. And that way, when you have those seasons, where you don’t feel like doing anything, you can refer back to your notes and see, okay, well, what is the minimum thing that I’m willing to do and that I’m committed to do. So again, that’s going to be in the area of movement, nutrition, stress, sleep, your social, environmental, and spiritual. And you can add any additional categories to that that you want to.
Minitments Consistency Plan
Now for my people that are a little more like me, where you’re kind of fly by the seat of your pants, you don’t really like to pre plan things, but you’re going to do something that I like to call minitments. Okay, so that’s like mini commitments. So a commitment, the definition of that is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause activity, or etc. So the state of quality of us being dedicated to our weight loss plan, that’s our commitment. But during times where maybe our motivation isn’t as high, or we just aren’t willing to do all the things that we originally set out to do, we’re going to make some mini commitments, or minitments, like I mentioned. So with this, you’re not really planning anything out ahead of time, and you’re just kind of going by your feelings.
So let’s say that your original plan was to go to the gym today. But things got crazy at work, or maybe they’re crazy at home and you are just not in the mood. But you know, you have this commitment and that you want to lose weight and that you have this plan. So you’re gonna scale back your original plan was to go to the gym. But now you’re going to scale back a little bit and say, Okay, I’m really not feeling the gym. I’m not willing to do that. What’s the minitment, that I can make right now. And so that’s going to be just to do something. So it could be something even so simple as I’m just going to put on my gym shoes, and you just do that or maybe you decide, okay, I’m not going to go to the gym, but I’m going to listen to my workout playlist or Maybe I’m putting on my shoes and listening to my workout playlist while I’m gonna walk around my house one time. So when you’re looking at Minitments, this is just something that’s going to move you forward a little bit, so that you’re not doing anything at all, but you’re still doing something. So I know for me that just by putting my shoes on, even if I’m not like going to go to the gym or do a full workout, I’ll still feel like okay, maybe I’ll just walk around my house a little bit. So that way, I’m still getting some type of movement. So just think of one thing that you can do to still move you closer to that original plan that you had. So like I said, if it was going to the gym, maybe you just putting your gym shoes on, and see if you can keep taking small steps forward to continue to do something.
So just giving you another example of a minitment that has nothing to do with weight loss, say that you have a goal to write a book, but your original plan was to write a chapter of the book. Well, what you can do for a minitment, or a mini commitment is, instead of writing a full chapter, you’re just going to sit down for five minutes, you’re going to set five minutes on the timer, and you’re just going to write for five minutes. And you see that’s still going to move you closer towards your goal, and you’re not doing everything that you originally wanted to do, but you’re still doing something.
So there you go, that was a couple of strategies to help you stay more consistent on your weight loss journey, so that you can continue to move forward, I just want to encourage you don’t quit, think about that microwave popcorn, think about if you’re opening the door and stopping your process and undoing all the progress that you made. So just keep moving forward and doing something and eventually you will end up where you want to be.